


Barking Up the Wrong Tree

by theskywasblue



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Animal Transformation, Crack, Cute, M/M, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-21
Updated: 2011-04-21
Packaged: 2017-10-18 18:46:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theskywasblue/pseuds/theskywasblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean shouldn't even be surprised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Barking Up the Wrong Tree

**Author's Note:**

> I blame [](http://velvetina-belle.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**velvetina_belle**](http://velvetina-belle.dreamwidth.org/) for everything that this is. I was going to write Sam/Ruby angst and then...yeah. I don't even know anymore. For the "Precious" square on my prompt table.

"You know - with the shit we put up with on a regular basis - this shouldn't even surprise me."

Sam nods sympathetically, though he's literally got stars in his eyes. He always was a dog person, always wanted one even though dad said no – for obvious reasons. And this isn't even a dog – this is _Cas_.

Cas, in the body of a tiny, bouncy, blue-eyed Husky puppy.

Witches – seriously, what even is Dean's life at this point?

"Well," Sam shrugs finally, looking like he really, really wants to pick Cas up and blow raspberries into his downy puppy fur, and oh God, Dean just knows he's going to have to witness this at some point. "At least he's not in pain or anything. As far as curses go, this one is pretty..."

"Ridiculous?" Dean suggests, watching Cas walk a circuit around the room with his little nose glued to the cheap shag.

"Adorable?"

Dean smacks him. Over by the door, Cas sticks his nose into Dean's discarded boot, recoils like he's been slapped in the face, and then attacks the thing like it's an affront to his existence.

"Hey – hey! Don't do that!"

Sam laughs his ass off, the traitor, as Dean pries Cas' tiny, vicious little puppy teeth from his boot. "Really, Dean, if this is the worst of it, there's not much to complain about."

Dean disagrees; reasonably so, it turn out, because Cas' whining at their motel room door ( _"maybe he has to go out, Dean" "He's not **actually** a dog, Sam"_ ) results in them being kicked to the curb. No pets policy, apparently. This is how they end up off the side of the highway in the middle of Buttfuck, Nowhere, sleeping in the Impala in the middle of August.

Dean puts Cas down on the floor, stretches out in the back seat and folds his jacket up under his head. When he rolls onto his side there’s a pair of bright blue eyes staring at him.

“No.”

Cas whines, then growls, barks once. The sound is as sharp as a hypodermic needle.

“Seriously dude, whatever you want, the answer is no.”

Cas starts barking again, and this time, he doesn’t let up.

“Dean,” Sam groans from the front seat, “make him stop.”

“God, okay,” Dean moves over, and Cas climbs up onto the seat and lays down next to him, just as Sam cranes his neck over the back of the seat and goes “Aww, puppy love!” and Dean is never living this down, ever.

He wakes up to hazy sunlight and Cas chewing on one the Impala’s door handles and totally loses his shit – justifiably so, because _his baby_ is being _chewed on_.

“Don’t yell at him, Dean – he’s just a puppy!” Sam cradles Cas like he’s a human baby, and honestly, Dean feels a little sick. They’re giving him twin looks of sorrow and disappointment, and it isn’t even fair; Dean’s heart can’t handle it.

They ditch Sam at the library to research the curse, and Dean ends up – much to his utter, utter misery – at a pet store looking for dog supplies, because if Cas is going to be a chewer, he’s damn well going to chew a rawhide and not Dean’s boots or his fucking _car_. The shit people buy their dogs is ridiculous – little sweaters, boots with rubber soles, complicated toys, dog foods with more variety in their ingredients than Dean gets in his diet in an entire _month_ – Dean sort of feels like he shouldn’t buy anything, just on principle, but he finally breaks down and gets a giant rawhide bone, and a collar and leash setup after no fewer than six people look at him like he’s an awful, awful animal abuser because he’s got this little adorable little puppy tied up on a rope.

He camps out on the stone steps of the library with Cas gnawing a rawhide at his feet and a very necessary energy drink in his hand. It’s hot as sin out and even he knows better than to leave Cas in the car. Plus, the upholstery probably wouldn’t survive it.

“Oh my God, he’s so _precious_!”

Dean’s eardrums nearly break at the sheer volume of the girl’s squeal. Cas cowers back against his legs and looks at her – with her awful little short-shorts, her teased hair and her, okay, totally salvageable tank-top that shows off probably the best rack Dean’s seen in days – like she’s some kind demon. She pats his head and rubs his ears and makes little cooing noises as Cas whines helplessly.

“What’s his name?”

“Cas,” Dean answers, putting on his best grin. Maybe there’s something he can salvage out of this after all.

“He’s so sweet – I love dogs.”

“Oh, _me too_.” Dean gives Cas a little shove with his foot, to move him into better petting position as he starts chatting the girl up, already working out in his head how he’ll text Sam, ditch him with the dog and...Then Cas snaps at the girl and she pulls her hand back protectively as Cas drops into a crouch and starts growling. Dean grabs him by the collar before he can actively lunge at her.

“Cas – dude! Not cool!” He gives Cas a little shake as the girl retreats, looking once back over her shoulder like she’s afraid Cujo is going to come after her and tear the backs of her legs off. “That was so not cool.”

The second he’s not paying attention, Cas pees on his leg.

“I’m not a dog person,” He tells Sam, when his brother comes barrelling down the library steps with an armload of books and photocopies. “You’ve gotta fix this before I take him to the pound.”

Sam looks totally scandalized, like he’s going to break into tears with a Sarah McLachlan song playing in the background any second. Cas digs his teeth into Dean’s pant leg and snarls.

“Alright, alright – let’s just fix this!”

They manage to find a motel where they’re allowed to have a puppy in the room – though Cas is going to have to find some way to pay them back for the outrageous pet deposit – and Dean goes to work setting up the ritual. Half the shit they’re meant to do looks like something out of Harry Potter, but if it works, Dean’s more than willing.

“It’s kind of too bad we can’t just leave him like this.”

“I did not just hear you say that,” Dean grumbles, drawing out chalk lines on the carpet – they already put down the money, he figures, and it’s not like Cas is going to be a dog much longer, they might as well deserve being robbed – Sam is being absolutely zero help; he’s sitting on the bed with Cas, rubbing his belly instead. Cas’ left hind leg is doing that happy little kick thing that means whatever Sam is doing is _really_ good – and what the hell? Dean’s not jealous at all.

“Would you stop that?”

Sam makes his pouty bitch-face and gets off the bed. Cas barrels after him and leaps down onto the floor, tail wagging, eyes all bright and eager.

“Can I play one more game of tug of war?” Sam asks, looking longingly at Cas’ tie on the table.

Dean doesn’t even acknowledge everything that’s wrong with that; he pops Cas’ collar off and sticks him in the middle of the circle, commanding, “Stay.”

When Cas looks at him like he’s speaking a foreign language, Dean tosses him a hunk of beef jerky to to sweeten the deal and keep him occupied during the spell.

It takes barely five minutes, then – instead of a little puppy – they’ve got Cas sitting on the floor with a hunk of jerky in his mouth, looking ruffled and confused.

Cas pulls the jerky from his mouth and licks his lips, looking at Sam, then at Dean before announcing, “That was...odd.”

“You’re telling me,” Dean’s got an absolutely killer headache, but at least his baby’s upholstery will live to see another day. “Good to have you back, Cas.”

When he claps the angel on the shoulder, Cas’ leg twitches. It might be just a side-effect, but Dean feels weirdly vindicated.

-End-


End file.
